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Elt installation in ctsw


Murray sibbeston

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47 minutes ago, Tom Baker said:

That's great, but it seems a lot of CT's wind up on their back in an emergency landing situation.

Indeed, but one should also be activating the ELT upon recognizing an emergency situation that will result in a forced landing, the chances and usefulness of those ELTs go up DRAMATICALLY if you don't have to rely on the g-switch.

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I talked to an  ACK engineer about the antenna position some time ago concerning a different aircraft. He couldn't deviate from the manual but off the record said that the satillite signal is so strong that there should be no issue. When I fly over remote areas I also carry a portable Sarsat beacon.

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In Canada an ultralight is not required to have an elt.  I bought the plane without one.  In the remote country I fly in it would be foolish to not have one. I carry an inreach as well but in freezing conditions time is critical in survival.  So not being constrained by any regulations I could mount it anyway that seems logical.  Maybe there’s a location for the antenna that provide the best chance of surviving if one flips over.   One reason I sold my lancair and bought the Ctsw is better survival odds if you ended up turned over.  Mine has no ballistic chute unfortunately.  

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I took a little different tack on this.  I kept my old 121.5MHz ELT for FAR compliance, and bought a 406MHz PLB that I keep updated with NOAA for SARSAT coverage.  The PLB is accessible in my cockpit, and the antenna will work no matter the resting orientation of the airplane.  There are pros/cons to both the ELT and PLB --  When I made my choice 406MHz ELTs were still outrageously expensive, which isn't really true now.  And I might get forced into a 406MHz ELT at some point if the regs require it, but so far I've been very happy with my PLB and I test the internal battery every six months and it's still good after several years.

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If you have the old ameriking ELT: the AD on them requires that once removed, it can never be reinstalled in any aircraft, experimental or otherwise. So there's no replacing it. Removal in this case, by the way, means that you have uninstalled the unit or are trying to replace it with another, temporarily removing it for the purpose of testing in accordance with the AD is not "removal".

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I bought an ack e-04 406 Elt.   I ended up mounting it under the left seat. I’ll put the antenna behind the com antenna back three feet so it’s protected in case the airplane flips. I decided not to mount it in the cargo areas as I fly with that area full a lot so did not want it in the way.  

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